Gibraltar offers old-time British flavour

The craggy, famous Rock of Gibraltar overlooks its namesake town below.

Photograph by: Handout photo
, Robert Wright

When in southern Spain, I can't resist popping into the British colony of Gibraltar. Gibraltar is hardly sign-posted in Spain, as if Spain wishes the British colony didn't exist. (Drivers follow highway signs to La Linea, the last Spanish town.) But when you see that famous "Rock of Prudential" standing boldly above the sea, you know it's here to stay.

The 30,000 people living along a five-kilometre lip of land under the famous and strategic rock are happily English. And quirky Gibraltar is determinedly not Spanish. My guide in Gibraltar told me that in a recent election they voted 99 per cent to stay with Britain. When locals are asked what they think of their current governor, they say, "He deals effectively with Spain."

Along with being "not Spanish," the colony is part-British and part-Gibraltarian. They have the big three-pronged English electrical plugs, their own currency (it's the pound sterling but, like Scotland, they have their own version) and their own Web domain (gi). Gibraltar's Anglican Church is proudly "headquarters of the Anglican Church in Europe" (not very centrally located for the business of administering that vast parish).

The people have that annoying British correctness. I got lectured by the woman at the tourist board for not giving them advance notice of my visit. They've decided to change the name of what for many centuries has been known as the "Moorish Castle" to the "Medieval Castle." (I told them, "Not in my guidebook.")

Gibraltar's economy, once dominated by the military, is now based mostly on tourism. And that includes quickie weddings - "only 48 hours notice is required and it's legally British." Sean Connery got married here. And, of course Beatle fans remember from the Ballad of John and Yoko, that Mr. and Mrs. Lennon, too, "got married in Gibraltar near Spain."

While the British military presence is now dwarfed by the British sun-seeker presence, the colony is encrusted with military souvenirs - stout ramparts, war memorials, and 48 kilometres of defence-related tunnels drilled into its rock.

As you drive the military roads that switchback to the summit of the rock, you notice big rusted iron rings spiked into the pavement every 18 metres - designed to enable soldiers to hoist up the giant cannons that once helped the Brits seal off the Mediterranean.

The town of Gibraltar is pretty humble. Spaniards come for duty-free sugar, tobacco and booze. For sightseers, the attraction here is the rock itself with its viewpoint on the summit, gregarious apes (actually a gang of about 200 tailless monkeys, whose presence here supposedly assured the continued British control of the colony), and siege galleries.

Several hundred metres of the tunnels (drilled for military purposes over the centuries) are open, giving tourists a chance to hike across the face of the rock and actually peer out of the cannon holes back at Spain. A gondola lifts visitors to the summit, or you could join a taxi tour instead.

Gibraltar's taxi drivers are trained to give a fun circuit with several stops, grand views, and - the highlight for many - some fun with those precocious monkeys. The lift and the 90-minute taxi tour each cost about $12.

Old England seems to permeate the island. As we drove high above the port, my taxi driver pointed down to a tiny breakwater and said, "That's where they pickled Admiral Nelson after the Battle of Trafalgar." (While he won, Nelson died, too. According to legend, his body was preserved in a barrel of spirits for the trip back to London.)

The Gibraltar business sense is quirky. The hotels are twice as expensive as those across the border in Spain (and not as comfortable). For a decade I've said, "English food is no longer as bad as its reputation." Now I'll add, " ... except in Gibraltar."

Rick Steves (www.ricksteves.com) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and radio.

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